Film actor and director, born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He turned to acting after a knee injury ended a promising sports career. Studying at the Yale School of Drama and the Actor's Studio in New York City, he made his film debut in 1954, and became one of the key stars of his generation, portraying idealistic rebels in such popular films as Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). He later pursued interests in motor-racing, politics, and food production, but returned as a powerful character actor and director of such sensitive works as The Glass Menagerie (1987). He has been nominated seven times for an Academy Award, receiving a special Oscar for his services to film in 1986, and winning a Best Actor Award for The Color of Money the same year. Later films include Nobody's Fool (1995) and Road to Perdition (2002, Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor). He appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward (married in 1958), in the television film Empire Falls (2005, Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor).
| Paul Newman | |
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Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, 1967 |
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| Birth name | Paul Leonard Newman |
| Born |
January 26, 1925 (age 81) Shaker Heights, Ohio, USA |
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Academy Awards |
Eddie Felson in The Color of Money Academy Honorary Award The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award |
| Spouse(s) |
Jackie Witte (1949-1958) Joanne Woodward (1958-present) |
Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and film director.
Background
Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland, to Theresa Fetzer and Arthur S. Newman's father was Jewish, the son of European immigrants Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, while his mother was Hungarian and practiced Christian Science.
Newman served in the Navy in World War II, in the Pacific theater.
Film career
While he was attending graduate school at Yale, he became a successful stage actor in New York City.
His first movie, The Silver Chalice (1954) has been described by Newman himself as the "worst movie of the entire 1950s decade," but he rebounded with acclaimed roles such as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) as boxer Rocky Graziano and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Elizabeth Taylor.
Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean for the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, but Dean won the part.
Major films
With his piercing blue eyes and handsome chiseled features, he could have been just a romantic leading man, but he wanted much more than that.
Newman has appeared in such classics as The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). He appeared most notably with Robert Redford in the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
He also appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & They were Rachel, Rachel (1968), based on Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, the screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), the television screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box (1980) and a screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1987).
Recent work
Recently, he appeared in a Broadway theatre revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Now in his early eighties, Newman has almost retired but has continued acting occasionally, such as doing voice work for Disney/Pixar's Cars as the character Doc Hudson
Awards
Newman has been nominated for an Academy Award nine times as an actor, in addition to the producer nomination he received for Rachel, Rachel.
Newman was nominated for five BAFTA Awards, winning once for The Hustler. He won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for The Long, Hot Summer.
In 2005, he won his first ever Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for Empire Falls, which he also produced. and for Outstanding Director of a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Shadow Box, in 1980.
In 1969, he won the Golden Globe award for Best Director, for Rachel, Rachel, but failed to get an Academy Award nomination even though the film was nominated for Best Picture.
And finally, in 1968, Newman was awarded the second of a long series of prestigious "Man of the Year" awards by Harvard University's renowned performance group, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Life outside the cinema
Personal life
Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward most of the year, where they own the Westport Country Playhouse. Scott had appeared in such films as The Towering Inferno as a firefighter, and in the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son.
Newman married Woodward on January 29, 1958. Newman directed his daughter Elinor (stage name Nell Potts) in the central role alongside her mother in the film The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
For his strong support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 (and effective use of television commercials in California), Newman was 19th on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
Consistent with his work for liberal causes, Newman publicly supported Ned Lamont's candidacy in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary against Senator Joe Lieberman.
Auto racing
He first became interested in the motorsport ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") while training for, and filming, Winning, a 1968 film, despite being color-blind.
Newman's first professional event was in 1972, in Thompson, Connecticut.
From the mid seventies to the early nineties, he drove for the Bob Sharp Racing team, racing mainly Nissans.
Newman co-founded Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas, a Champ Car auto racing team, in 1983.
One beneficiary of his philanthropy is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a residential summer camp for seriously ill children, which is located between Ashford and Eastford in Connecticut.
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